The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Harvard Professor Share How Psychedelics Are Actually Healing
04 Mar 2025
BUY THE BOOK! “How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence” by Michael Pollan “Fire in the Hole!: The Untold Story of My Traumatic Life and Explosive Success” by Bob Parsons In this episode of The Oprah Podcast, Oprah and bestselling author Michael Pollan discuss the potential of psychedelic drugs like psilocybin (also known as magic mushrooms) and LSD as a benefit to help relieve symptoms of PTSD, OCD, anxiety, addiction, or depression. Michael’s 2018 book, "How to Change Your Mind", was a watershed moment in the rising national conversation about the use of psychedelics in guided therapy. Michael describes his own psychedelic experiences as well as additional guests, including GoDaddy founder Bob Parsons, who share their stories about how psychedelics helped them improve their mental well-being, cope with trauma and grief and achieve spiritual transcendence. Pollan taught for many years at UC Berkeley and is currently a professor teaching creative writing at Harvard. This episode is brought to you in part by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at http://www.betterhelp.com/OPRAHPODCAST For more information on The Roland R. Griffiths, Ph.D. Professorship Fund, Psychedelic Research On Secular Spirituality And Well-Being - https://griffithsfund.org/ Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@Oprah Follow Oprah Winfrey on Social: https://www.instagram.com/oprah/ https://www.facebook.com/oprahwinfrey/ Listen to the full podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0tEVrfNp92a7lbjDe6GMLI https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-oprah-podcast/id1782960381 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
Hi, I am so glad that you all are here with me. Welcome to the Oprah Podcast. They are as controversial as they are fascinating, and I know many of you are really curious as I am. So let's hop right into this question. Can psychedelic drugs like psilocybin, also known as magic mushrooms, MDMA, also known as ecstasy, and even LSD, can they heal?
mental trauma, or even help people reach a transcendent, transformational spiritual experience. Joining me, the man who's an expert on all of this, Michael Pollan. Great to see you again, Michael. Great to see you too, Oprah. Once again, Michael Pollan is at the forefront of a revelatory national conversation.
For newcomers, what is a psychedelic?
Today, there's a new and growing fight to make psychedelics legal again in the United States.
Up next on StarTalk, all about psychedelics.
Psychedelics, once demonized as a dangerous counterculture threat, are being reexamined as a possible tool for treatment for anxiety, depression, addiction, PTSD, and for spiritual transcendence.
It had been 49 years since the war. And I like to say this, I finally came home.
Michael's best known for his blockbuster books about food, like The Omnivore's Dilemma and Cooked. But his groundbreaking 2018 work, How to Change Your Mind, created an opening for a new way to think about psychedelics.
It's literally like magic. I was like, how is this possible?
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